


Time Amok

by DesertVixen



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: AU - Role Reversal, Episode: s02e05 Amok Time, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 04:25:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15655725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: A role reversal AU where Captain Spock of the Enterprise experiencespon farr...





	Time Amok

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lah_mrh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lah_mrh/gifts).



_Captain’s Personal Log, Stardate 3372.5_

_Commander Kirk is beginning to notice that unusual circumstances exist surrounding my recent behavior. He has said nothing as of this log entry, but I do not believe that state will continue. My first officer is very observant for a human, even if he chooses to keep his observations private. He has been called the best first officer in the fleet, and I have found that to be an accurate statement. I believe he will feel the need to take action soon._

_I have requested emergency leave through the appropriate channels but have not received a reply. If I do not receive a positive answer soon, I will have to examine the options available to me. I had hoped not to experience my current situation, but cannot escape the dictates of Vulcan biology._

Captain Spock of the USS Enterprise finished his log entry, then contemplated the austerity of his quarters.

 _Pon farr_ – it had come for him after all. Spock had hoped that his mix of human and Vulcan genes meant he would never experience it, but it had only been delayed. It was something that Vulcans – even those serving in Starfleet against their father’s wishes – kept shrouded in privacy and euphemism, a once-every-seven-years return to primitive Vulcan times. Spock knew that it was for this reason that Vulcans went into space as bonded pairs, but he was different.

He had always been different, despite his father’s attempt to cast him in a traditional Vulcan mold. There was T’Pring, but Spock found it easy enough to ignore their faint mental bond, and T’Pring never demanded more.

There was little time to waste. He had to return to Vulcan or he would die, consumed in bloodfire and madness. Spock was aware, of course, that a Vulcan’s mate did not have to be a Vulcan – his own mother was proof of that – but there was no time for the requisite bonding. He could not simply choose a mate here on the ship, even if he knew there was at least one who would welcome his choice. It was not death he feared so much as the loss of dignity, his composure. His choice might not be logical, but _pon farr_ was anything but logical.

He had to wait for Starfleet to grant his request.

He had to trust in logic.

*** 

Commander James T. Kirk knew something was going on. The captain – Spock – had been acting more stand-offish than usual, and McCoy had confided that he seemed very irritable.

It was the incident of the plomeek soup that convinced Kirk he had to do something. It was simply not normal for starship captains, Vulcan or not, to throw bowls of hot soup at nurses, nor for them to bellow at nurses in the hallway. Especially when he was not criticizing her performance, but yelling that if he wanted anything from her, he would ask for it. As much as he and McCoy enjoyed teasing Christine Chapel about her partiality towards the captain, he knew she had been deeply upset and embarrassed. 

Captain Spock maintained a level of reserve that Kirk had only rarely seen crack or relax, despite his best attempts.

He was all set to get his commanding officer off the bridge and confront Spock when the message to divert to the Altair system came in. Kirk thought he had never seen such a trapped look on another officer’s face as Captain Spock gave the command to the helm to make for Altair, best speed. Then he took his seat in the captain’s chair and put on a damned good impression of everything being just fine.

Kirk was not fooled. Something was up, and he intended to find out what it was.

*** 

Spock stared blindly at the communication log. Why was no one responding to his messages? The Vulcan senior officer he had contacted should have seen that his situation was addressed as quickly as possible. Even a denial would be better than this…void.

He would have to act, and take whatever consequences came. At least he would still be alive to have consequences. 

All he had to do was tell Sulu to change course, to head to Vulcan. There was no need to lie by giving a false reason – true or false, the Enterprise crew was well-versed in dealing with change. He had only to give the order and it would be obeyed.

If he did not, he would likely die. He did not need his chief medical officer to tell him how desperate his medical condition was. There were meditation techniques that could be used, but Spock had foolishly not concentrated on learning those techniques. He could even tell himself it was a logical decision – after all, the response to his request for leave would be positive. There was merely a delay.

Captain Spock gave the order.

*** 

It did not take long for Commander Kirk to discover that something was wrong. He had been pondering if there wasn’t some way to accomplish both of their aims – getting to Altair and getting the captain to Vulcan. Kirk still didn’t know why Spock needed to go to Vulcan, but he clearly needed to. The Enterprise would not be the only ship at Altair, but right now it was the only ship that could assist Spock. So he’d gone and talked to Scotty, and come up with a plan.

Only to find that the captain had already ordered a course change to Vulcan.

Now, Kirk thought, now he had a chance to find out what was going on.

When he went to the captain’s quarters, Kirk was almost surprised that he was not locked out. Perhaps there was some sort of mission Spock could not tell him about. Maybe there was a Starfleet reason for their course change. Maybe Spock had not just disobeyed a direct order from Starfleet to head to the Alatair system.

Whatever the answer was, Kirk intended to get it.

He had been in the captain’s quarters before, and always noticed the temperature change. His quarters were the one place where Captain Spock could keep the temperature turned to something more comfortable for him, something Vulcan-warm. Was it his imagination or had the captain turned the temperature up more, Kirk wondered.

“Captain Spock, are you aware that the ship has been rerouted to Vulcan? Ensign Chekov says it was done at your order.”

“Then it must be,” Spock said slowly, and Kirk was aware of how much every word seemed to be controlled.

“Why did you do it, sir?” Kirk rarely used the honorific, but it seemed that to do anything else would sound hugely insubordinate.

“I have no memory of doing so, but if Ensign Chekov states I did, then I must have done so. It is imperative that I go to Vulcan.” 

“Captain Spock,” Kirk said, and drew a deep breath. “At this time, I am declaring that you seem to be having a health crisis, and that you need to go to Sickbay. I will call Security to escort you if I must.”

There was a long beat, and then Spock stood. “I will accompany you to sick bay,” he said gravely. It would do no good, he knew, but he knew that Kirk was quite trustworthy – and quite capable of backing up his threats.

Later, while Kirk was in his quarters pondering how first officers who relieved their captains had fared in their later careers, McCoy barged in.

“Can we maybe speed the trip to Vulcan up a little?”

“What’s wrong with the captain?”

McCoy frowned. “I have a detailed record of his symptoms, and the one that you need to be concerned with is the massive build up of an adrenaline-analogue. If we don’t get to Vulcan in a week, or eight days at the outside, he will be dead.”

“But what’s wrong with him?” Kirk demanded.

“He will not tell me. I’m convinced he knows, but it must be some Vulcan thing, and you know how touchy that makes him.”

It confirmed he had been right to drag the captain into sickbay – and it gave him cover to keep the ship pointed towards Vulcan. Kirk knew better than to send a message to Starfleet – Admiral Komack would be sure to find out, and they would both be in the hot seat.

They would keep going towards Vulcan, and an answer.

*** 

He had never really given much thought to how Vulcans picked their mates, but Kirk had assumed that there would be some logical process. Computer matchmaking perhaps, but he had definitely not envisioned anything like this process of mental bonds as children and reenacting ritual conflicts that called back to the days before Vulcans had embraced logic. Kirk had joined Starfleet to explore, and this definitely qualified. He was enjoying it – Kirk was relatively sure that he was seeing something few humans had seen – when he wasn’t worrying about the time factor. Perhaps once the captain was logical again, Kirk could suggest leaving him here and taking a run over to the Altair system.

He stopped thinking about the Altair system when the woman – the very beautiful woman – put her hand in front of Spock’s before he could ring the ritual gong. _“Kal-if-fee!”_

It seemed the ritual had taken a very unusual turn, judging from the flickers of expression on the faces of the other Vulcans. Only T’Pau, the apparent officiator of the event, did not blink an eye.

Of course he agreed when he was asked if he accepted the challenge. If the choice was him or the huge Vulcan man who wore what bore a striking resemblance to an executioner’s mask, Kirk would let Spock fight him. They had sparred before, and he had done okay.

They had not used weapons, and certainly not the one Spock was holding now, with a sharp blade at one end, an bludgeon at the other. Spock held it as if he meant business, and Kirk knew that his captain did not really see him, but an image born of the immense stress he was under. He had also realized too late that it was not a normal sparring match, but a fight to the death. Killing one’s captain (especially when Starfleet didn’t even know you were on Vulcan doing so) did not seem like a career enhancing move to Kirk.

Even if the other option was his own death. Kirk battled on, trying to stay a step ahead of Spock, trying to just breathe in the thin, hot air. Trying to stay alive.

When McCoy seemingly materialized by his side and offered a hypo, Kirk did not argue. Tri-ox would help a little, but he wondered if they might have left it too late. When he started losing feeling in his extremities, Kirk wondered what was going on. What had McCoy done to him? 

He wondered right up until he blacked out.

*** 

“Live long and prosper,” T’Pau told him, as cool and reserved as befitted a Vulcan elder.

“I shall do neither,” Spock said, rendering the Vulcan greeting salute automatically, “because I have killed my friend and another Starfleet officer.”

He had killed his first officer, a fellow Starfleet officer. More than that, he had killed his friend. The pair of thoughts kept running through his mind. Worse, he had done so because he had been manipulated by T’Pring, who did not want him.

Spock had not selected Kirk and McCoy simply because they were the next most highly-ranked individuals on the ship. He had selected them because they were, in fact, his closest friends. It would never be the same, he thought, not without Commander James T. Kirk. McCoy would never forgive.

He knew what he had to say, had to do, and went to Sickbay to accomplish the task. 

McCoy seemed uneasy, a state that Spock could easily understand. He had, after all, witnessed Kirk’s death. Spock ignored McCoy’s attempts to interrupt him as he gave what he believed would be his final orders as a Starfleet captain. Mr. Scott would have to take command, of course, because the Enterprise no longer had a first officer.

“Don’t you think you’d better check with me first?” That voice, that playful voice that Spock had been sure he would never hear again.

He whirled and saw the impossible – his first officer standing there, alive and quite well, with a grin on his face.

Spock couldn’t resist the emotion, just this once. 

“Jim!” He grabbed Kirk by the arms, let all the emotion and relief he felt show on his face this one time.

James Kirk was alive. Spock still had the best first officer in the fleet – and his friend.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I really enjoyed the prompt you had with a role reversal between Spock and Kirk, and when looking at the Original Series Amok Time is one of the best places to go for that one. All references come from the episode itself, and I helped myself to a line or two of dialogue. The star date on the log entry is shifted back to account for the change in when the log entry actually happens.


End file.
